


Steven Universe & The Court Of Blue Diamond

by orphan_account



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Momswap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-30 07:49:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15092345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Steven has been raised by his Dad, a strict matriarch, a stoic woman barely taller than him who can (kinda) see the future, a woman who has serious abandonment issues and bails a lot and a woman who barely talks. A perfectly normal family that has to save the world. Oh, also he's kind of his mom who was an Alien queen.





	1. Chapter 1

"Heya Steven!"

The sound of his name being called made Steven Universe look up from where he was crouched on the boardwalk, his gaze was out towards the sea and he had a pensive expression on his face. When he saw Sadie Miller from the Big Doughnut approaching however he could not stop the smile.

"Hi Sadie!" He cried out happily as he stood up and glanced at his friend with a bright smile, Sadie was wearing a black jacket over her usual clothes and she had a doughnut bag clenched in her first, the sweet aroma of fried dough drifted from the bag and Steven couldn't deny that aroma was almost irresistible. "Are you heading home for the night?"

"Yeah, just finished closing up. Kinda surprised that I didn't see you in there today." Steven could understand that, he was always in the Big Doughnut when it was open and he would be in it when it was closed but then that would technically speaking be breaking the law all thought his guardians had always said that human laws were too confusing and he shouldn't have to follow them if he didn't want to.

But he didn't want to cause problems for Sadie and Lars and so he had resigned himself to waiting for the days when the Big Doughnut was open. Though if it were up to him favourite place in the entire world aside from Home and his mom's sanctuary.

"Sorry Sadie, I was busy. Holly Blue wanted me to practice trying to use my Gem powers and she said that I had to take it seriously." Steven had never been allowed to accompany anyone on any missions, not until he could his super secret amazing diamond powers.

He had been really trying hard ever since Holly had been asking him to start with his training, he wanted to join the rest of the gems on missions. It kind sucked that he had to spend most of his day waiting for them to come back, not that he didn't like hanging out with Dad or anything cause Dad was great but he wished could go on adventures and save the day just like the rest of the gems did.

"Oh, well. I guess I will see you later, you should head back home soon Steven. It's going to be dark soon. Bye!" Sadie cried as she turned and began to run down the boardwalk. Steven jumped to his feet and waved his hand as the girl ran down the boardwalk away from him.

"Bye Sadie, see you later! Give Lars a hug from me!" He cried out as he watched Sadie diminish into the distance, he glanced towards the sea once again before with a sigh he jumped down on to the beach and ran towards the cliff, running around it to the other part of the beach that was hidden from sight.

Steven saw his quarters, made up of a living rom, his bedroom in the loft of the quarters, his bathroom and his kitchen. He knew that most people would call it a house but to him it had always just been his quarters. His home was the temple and his quarters were just the part of the temple in which he happened to live.

He glanced up at the statue which held his quarters safely in two of her giant hands, she had eight arms but the hands off all but three had long ago broken off. Several of those hands were littered on the beach, though some had long since been carried out by the tide.

Aside from the multiple limbs however, the strangest thing was that the woman had two faces on one head. One on the top which was gazing up into the sky while her lower face was gazing out into sea. The statue almost seemed to be looking out for any oncoming threats from any direction.

He ran up the wooden steps which he could just vaguely remember watching being built on a hot summer day, up to the porch. He opened the door and was about to call out when a slender sharp darted out of the side of his vision and scooped him up into their arms before jumping out of the way of a glob of green fluid landing against the floor of where he was standing.

Steven found himself in the loft of his room, the green glob was eating through the floor of where he had been standing. He looked up at who had saved him and found himself staring up a woman with a blue cone nose with messy hair covering her eyes from view, she was dressed in a light blue body suit and a sheer skirt that sparkled in the light. "Thanks for that Pearl."

The woman nodded with out a word and then gently placed him on to the bed and without a word leaped off of the loft, standing in the middle of the room was a monster with a long worm like body and three heads, each on the size of a microwave with green acid dripping from their jaws, tendrils the size of water hoses were erupting from it's sides and they were tipped with what looked like steel tips.

Pearl raised her hand to the gem on her chest and with a glow of light pulled a glave out of it, she ducked as one of the tendrils swung at her and then with a swing of her long axe took one of the tendrils. Before the severed limb could hit the ground it disappeared in a cloud of pale pink smoke.

There were three others surrounding the creature, the tallest was only half as tall as the Hydra Worm with periwinkle coloured skin and pale lavender hair with side buns that were pointed out like two upside down ice cream cones. She was dressed in a dark blue body suit and a diamond shaped opening on her chest, white puffy gloves on her hands and white heeled boots on her feet. On the back of her head was a teardrop shaped gemstone on the back of her hand and clutched in her hand was a whip handle, the whip it self sparking.

At the back of the creature was a woman that was only an inch or two taller than Steven with powder blue hair that covered her blue face and flowed down to her back which mean it nearly reached down her entire body, she wore a dress that covered her feet and had puffy sleeves.. She had a round gemstone embodied in her hand but she did not seem to have a weapon.

The last woman was shorter than the one with a whip but taller than Pearl, she had cyan skin and was wearing a blue halter top and a long flowing skirt that went down to her knees with messy dark blue hair. Her back was to the kitchen so Steven could not see her gem but he knew it was shaped like a rain drop, she didn't seem to have any weapon either but she didn't look like she needed one.

A hand was placed gently on Steven's head and he looked up into the smiling face of his father. "Heya Stew-Ball. Did you have some fun?" His father was balding and reddening from the sun and he was a littler overweight from not having to do much other than sit around the house all day but he was one of the smartest people that Steven had ever known.

"Heya Dad! Where did that come from?" Steven asked as he pointed down at the monster that the woman with the whip was now reeling back by wrapping her whip around one of it's heads and drawing it back, the woman in the skirt had wrapped two long tendrils made of water around it's other heads.

"Don't know kiddo. Turned up about a few minutes before you turned up." Greg said and then let out a shirk as a glob of acid slipped free and sped towards them, he grabbed Steven and threw them both down to the floor and the glob melted through the glass of the window.

The shortest woman held up her gem and it began to glow and the two watery tendrils froze solid, Pearl raised her spear and silently hurled it into the creature's middle. It let out a harsh shriek and disappeared into a poof of smoke. Once his dad loosened his grip on him Steven shoot up and jumped off of the loft and landed on the sofa that was placed under the loft.

"That was awesome!" Steven cried as he ran over and wrapped his arms around Pearl's legs, a delicate hand came down to ruffle his brown locks. "I wish I could do that, I could've been here to help and could've ordered it to stop attacking you. Or...or ordered it to poof or blasted it with my super secret diamond energy beam."

Steven heard Lapis, the woman dressed in the skirt, mutter "Energy beam?" But he barely heard that over the sharp gasp and he turned to look at Holly Blue Agate who was staring at him with a horrified expression on her face, her quivering hand held in front of her lips.

"My prince!" She cried out in horror as she gazed around the partially melted remains of his quarters. "Oh, there are not words for how sorry I am! It came out of nowhere!" She rounded on the tiniest woman with a furious expression on her face. "Sapphire, are you not supposed to predict future events? Why did you not see this coming?"

Sapphire stared up at Holly Blue with a blank expression, saying nothing watching as Holly grew more and more angry with each second that she didn't speak. She eventually did speak however, her voice not rising above a quiet monotone. "I can not see the future, Holly Blue. I can predict the most likely outcome but I need data and variables to predict the most likely outcome."

Holly let out a grunt before she turned back to Steven with an apologetic expression on her face. "I am so sorry my Prince, we shall have this repaired in just a moment. How did your training go?"

"It didn't, nothing I tried work. Concentrating really hard didn't work, not trying to hard didn't work, doing both didn't work but I didn't really know how to do that and then I got a headache and just sat down for a bit and then Sadie came to talk to me and then I decided to come back here cause it was dark and that's how training went." He said with a tiny frown, frustrated at his lack of progress.

Lapis walked past him and ruffled his hair on her way to the screen door out on the way to the porch. "Don't worry Kid, you'll get the hang of it sooner or later. I'll see you later." She said with a smile that Steven gladly returned as Lapis gingerly stepped around the acid hole in front of the door before opening it and stepping out on to the porch.

"Lazuli, where do you think you are going?" Holly called after her and Lapis turned her head to look at her, a smirk on her face as her gemstone glower and two wings made of water sprouted out of her back, each of them about the size of a longsword and the width of a tractor tyre.

"Going to get some air." And then with a flap of her water wings Lapis was airborne, Steven ran to the window but Lapis was already just a slowly retreating dot in the distance. He stood watching her go until he couldn't see her anyone more and could only see the slowly darkening sky.

Suddenly there was a loud rumble and Steven was terrified that another monster had turned up but when he spun around he didn't see anyone expect for Holly, Sapphire, Pearl and his Dad who was now climbing down the stairs of his loft. With a blush he realised that it was coming from his stomach. "Whoops, kind forgot to eat today."

"Say no more my Prince. Pearl! Your Diamond is hungry, making him something to eat. Make it quick and make it good." Pearl did nothing but fall into a low curtsey before she turned and walked over to the small kitchen, getting a saucepan out of the cupboard as well as some peppers and tomatoes.

"You need any help Pearl?" Greg asked but Holly let out another gasp like he had just suggested stealing candy from a baby or throwing a man with cement shoes of a bridge or doing one right after one another.

"Absolutely not, forgive me. But you are the consort of our beloved and much missed Blue Diamond! I will not allow you to lower yourself to doing a task fit for Pearl, even one who belonged to her grandness. Forgive me Mister Universe, but I will not hear of it." It was clear form Holly's tone that she really was not going to allow Greg to help.

"Holly." Sapphire spoke up and Steven noticed that there was hint of something that sounded like anger as well as something that might have been alarm in her voice. "The creature didn't leave a gem, I've never known a monster have an offspring this large before. My Future Vision suggests that we are dealing with something that can create copies of it's self, I would recommend that we discuss this more in the temple."

"Very well." Holly followed Sapphire to the large cavern at the back of Steven's quarters, stepped around the large circular pad that crossed the wooden floors and the stone floor and then stepped in front of a single door with a golden star emblazoned on it, the star had hollows that suggested something was once set in it but they had long since been removed. Sapphire held up hand and her gem glowed, on the door the golden star glowed and the door opened, though it almost seemed to be resisting the pull.

The two gems stepped through and once the door slid shut after them Greg stepped behind the counter and began to help Pearl cut up some onions. Pearl stopped and turned her head in his direction and if Steven could see her eyes then he would guess she was staring at him. "Greg-

"What Holly doesn't know won't hurt her, and I am not letting you do this on your own. It can be our secret, right Stew-Ball?" Steven nodded with a grin and after a few moments a small smile appeared on Pearl's face as she began to chop the peppers, expertly and thoroughly removing the seeds.

Once all the vegetables had been cut and they had been placed in a saucepan to began to make the sauce and another sauce pan had been filled with paste, Greg told Steven to go and wash up for Dinner. Steven nodded and ran over to the door that lead into the bathroom.

He began to run one of the sink taps but before he put his hands under the water he stopped and gazed into the mirror before he slowly began to pull up his shirt, he looked down and embedded in the soft pink flesh of his stomach was a Blue Diamond, he brushed his fingers over it and felt a jolt.

It didn't hurt but he could feel the power inside of it, power he couldn't reach no matter how hard he tried. Steven let out a sigh and dropped his shirt and went right back to cleaning himself up. He wouldn't worry about it tonight, he would try not to at the very least.

Tonight, all he was going to worry about was not chocking on a meatball.


	2. Chapter 2

After Steven and Greg had finished their pasta and they both helped Pearl with the washing up, despite the normally quiet and meek gem trying to protest, Steven found himself lying on the floor of his quarters with his legs up in the air, his feet kicking back and forth as his dad sat on the sofa, strumming at his guitar with Pearl sitting quietly next to him.

It was close to Steven's bed time, though Holly Blue had been disgusted at the idea that any of them could enforce a time on him to do something and it had actually been Sapphire who had suggested it and she was the one who had taken to enforcing it, Sapphire and Holly Blue were both still in the temple and there was no sign of Lapis.

Steven found himself wondering where Lapis was always going, she never stayed around long even though she did have a room in the temple just like all of the others did. Well, he assumed that Pearl had a room. He had never seen her go into the temple without any of the others and she was always waiting for him in his room when he came home from a long hard day of walking the town.

When he finally came into his diamond powers maybe he would ask Lapis to tell him where she was always going all the time and if Pearl didn't have quarters in the temple then he would command that she been given some, Pearl deserved that much for always being nice and looking after him and dad like she did.

For now at least, maybe he could draw a picture for her of what her room would actually look like! He jumped too his feet and ran up to the steps to his loft bedroom and quickly gathered people and some crayons, he sat down on his bed and bite his tongue as he stared intently down at the paper as he tried to consider what Pearl would like her room to look like.

Well, it would have to be blue to start with he decided. Pearl was blue and she had served his mother who had been Blue Diamond and she was friends with Holly Blue, Sapphire and Lapis all of whom were blue so it only made sense to him that blue would be her favourite colour.

Nodding at his perfect logic Steven reached out and took out a blue crayon, then he needed to decide what would fill it so he tried to think about what exactly Pearl liked. He was kinda sad to say that he had never really asked Pearl what it was she liked but Steven had known her his entire life, he could totally figure it out.

Well...Pearl liked to cook a lot, she always did it and she never complained about doing so she had to like cooking, she liked to clean up as well and to do the laundry and she always liked to play boardgames like Kitchen Calamity and Battle Boat with him and so he quickly added all these things to the picture.

He gently picked up the picture and held it reverently, it was the best piece of work he had ever done and by anyone's standards it wasn't too shabby but then he realised that it was missing something and he quickly grabbed some more crayons and quickly drew himself and Pearl standing in the middle of the room, holding hand with bright smiles on their faces, before he scooped it back up.

Steven jumped to his feet and was half way down the stairs to show Pearl and his dad the drawing when suddenly there was a massive roar and the entire ground shook, Steven let out a cry as he tumbled off of the stairs but before he could hit the floor Pearl was there, holding him in her arms.

Perfect! Now he could show her the drawing. But before he could draw her attention to it Pearl set him down on the floor and with a frown made her way to the door, stepping around the acid hole in front of it as she stepped outside. Steven frowned and tried to follow her but before he could take a step his dad was there, holding him back and shaking his head.

The door to the temple suddenly jolted open and Sapphire and Holly Blue ran out into his room, they didn't stop but Sapphire shot out a command to Greg that he should keep Steven inside the house as they rushed outside. Steven frowned at that, he was a gem too and he could help!? How else was he supposed to find his powers without them.

With a surge of speed that Steven barely know he possessed he ran for the door, leaping over the acid hole and landing outside on the deck. What he saw caused him to gasp and nearly made him want to run back inside but he stood his ground, he was a gem too. He was a gem too.

He kept repeating that as he ran down the steps to the beach so he could get a better look even as he could hear his dad breathlessly calling for him to come back.

Holly Blue, Sapphire and Pearl were standing on the beach and in front of them was the monster from the house but this one had some differences. The biggest, no pun intended but welcome, was that this one was at least forty feet tall. It's heads were big enough to swallow a city buss, it's tendrils were as long and as thick as those inflatable tube things that his dad had shown him that once stood outside the car wash he had used to own before he had lived with the Gems full time.

The finally difference about this Hydra Worm was that on top of it's middle head was a round, green gemstone.

"Where is Lazuli?" Holly called out as she summoned her weapon, staring up at the monster with what Steven might have thought had been fear if not for the fact that he knew that Holly Blue was never scared of anything, she always managed to beat the monsters away in the end.

"She'll be back soon, but Holly. I think we might have too-" Whatever Sapphire was going to suggest Steven never got to find out as Holly let out a cry of revulsion that almost drowned out the Hydra Worm's roars.

"Absolutely not, I refuse to do that. Do you hear me? I refuse!" Holly's gem glowed again and she pulled another whip out of it and for a heart stopping moment Steven thought that she might actually attack Sapphire, Sapphire clearly thought so as well as she held her hands up and took a step back.

Holly glared at Sapphire but then another roar from the colossal monster seemed to bring her back to her senses as she turned her gaze to it. "We do this the old fashioned way, Pearl, draw it's attention. Sapphire, try and freeze it as much as you can. I'll hang back and wait for an opening."

"What can I do?"

"Well, my prince you can-My prince!?" Holly was so shocked to see him that she didn't see the massive tendril coming swing down at them. If it weren't for Pearl's quick reflexes then the two of would've been made into a Holly Blue and Steven flavoured pancake. Sapphire rushed over to them as Greg ran up as well.

"I thought I asked you to keep Steven inside?" Sapphire hissed and though her voice had not raise there was a clearly steely note in her voice as she turned her head to look at Greg. Greg robbed the back of his sheepishly, looking more scared of the gem that was barely taller than his son then he did off the giant gem monster.

"The kid's faster than he looks." Sapphire shook her head, Holly looked like she was going to have a break down and Pearl simply pointed at Steven and then back up at the house. Greg nodded and scooped Steven up despite his protests, once they had reached the steps Steven could hear the gems charging into battle.

As they reached the deck, before his father could take him back inside Steven leaped free from his grip and ran over to the railing, though he didn't attempt to go back down to the beach as he knew his dad would follow him and he didn't want him getting hurt so he contended himself to watching as the gems kicked some but.

Pearl was doing as Holly had asked her to do, drawing the Hydra Worm's attention as it throw it's tendrils down at her to try and smash her into Pearl Paste. She ducked and danced gracefully and avoided the Worm's blows but sometimes only by a couple of inches either way, her glaive was in her hands and when a tendril landed close to her she tried to slice at it but the skin was too thick for the weapon to puncture or cut through.

Sapphire was hanging back, using her super speed to keep head of the tendrils. She only stopped once or twice to shot a beam of freezing light out of her gem but most times it just seemed to bounce off of the monster. When a ball of acid landed at her feet however she managed to duck back before she was hurting and used her freezing beam to seal one of it's jaws shut, Steven let out a cheer when he saw it even as his dad tried to pull him back inside.

Holly had combined her two whips into one, meshing them together in a glow of light so it could reach the Worm from where she was standing, her super long whip didn't seem to be do much damage however, even the electricity that channelled through it didn't seem to be doing much.

The Hydra Worm was clearly getting irritated, it threw it's middle head back and let out a roar as the gem on top of the head glowed with a sickly green light. Suddenly the entire Worm was glowing with the same light and right next to Sapphire a similar glow was appearing, Steven went to shout out a warning but it wasn't needed as Sapphire turned and ducked away as another Hydra Worm, the same size as the one that had been in the house and like that one had no gem, appeared on the beach.

The big one was still growing and more little ones were suddenly appearing, soon the beach seemed to be infested with the monsters. Three were approaching Holly Blue who was using her whip to try and hold the little ones off like a lion tamer trying to hold back some very, very dangerous lions.

Sapphire was trying to out run three that were right on her tail and Pearl was practically surrounded by them, swinging her glaive at any that came to close to her. All the while the true Worm stood tall above them all and it let out a chocked sound that almost sounded like laughter as it spat acid out of the two mouths that it could still use and swung it's tendrils down at the Gems who were just barely avoiding them as well as the little ones.

Suddenly, two chains made of water burst out of the ocean and wrapped around the long body of the Worm, holding it steady. Four more chains burst out of the ocean and wrapped around some of the Worm's writhing tendrils, holding them as best as they could and Steven cheered and he could hear his dad cheering with him as they both spotted Lapis hovering in the sky.

And just like that, the tide seemed to change. Holly was back to wielding two whips which she used to sent large jolts at the smaller worms, poofing them easily. Sapphire was now chasing the ones that had been chasing her, sending her icy beams at them as they ran and Pearl was slicing through the one that had surrounded her, poofing them like they were nothing as her glaive sliced through their necks and their chests.

But just like that, it all went wrong again at the worm shoot out one of it's free tentacles at Lapis, sizing her around the middle and throwing her face first towards the temple. Steven watched in horror as Lapis tried to flap her wings but she had been thrown to fast and so Lapis collided with the cliff face and limply fell to the beach.

The chains fell away and simply dissolved back into water, the Worm, now completely free once more, swung out with one of it's tendrils in a wide sweeping motion, clearly not caring it if hit it's copies or not. Pearl managed to dodge but Holly Blue and Sapphire weren't as lucky and both were sent flying.

Pearl stood alone but before she could do anything a tendril slammed down on to her, Steven gasped and icy needles stabbed him inside of his stomach but as the tendril was pulled back he felt slightly relived to see that Pearl was trying to get back up to her feet. The feeling did not last long however as the tendril came slamming back down on to her, once it was pulled back another came down on to her and then another and another and another.

Steven was going to be sick, he couldn't watch this. Before he knew what he was going he sized on to the railing and hurled himself over. He could hear his dad screaming his name as he landed and Steven know that he should have been injured falling like that but the fall itself seemed to have happened in slow motion and at the minute he didn't care.

At that moment nothing mattered except getting to Pearl.

As he ran towards her the Worm pulled it's tendril back and raised it up higher than it had ever done it before and Steven got the feeling that this was going to be the finish blow, he could hear people calling at him. His dad, Holly Blue, Sapphire and Lapis who were all trying to get him to go back but he barely heard them.

He jumped in front of Pearl's limp body and held his arms wide, doing his best to shield her from the monster. Staring up at it he spoke calmly. "You aren't going to hurt her, I won't let you."

The monster let out that terrible chocking laughter again and stopped raising's it tendril. The extremity seemed to hang motionless in the air.

"You are not going to hurt Pearl."

The tendril swung down and Steven shut his eyes tight as he heard his Dad, Holly, Sapphire and Lapis screaming his name and Pearl's hand trying to pull him behind her so she would take the worst of the blow.

"YOU ARE NOT GOING TO HURT PEARL!" He screamed as loud as he could as he waited for the blow to land and the pain to come. But the pain never came.

He opened his eyes and his belly felt warm, the entire area seemed to be bathed in a blue light as he looked down and saw that it was coming from his gem. The Hydra seemed to be swaying back and forth, almost like it was in a trance, it's tendrils pulling back and hanging limply at it's sides.

"What?" Lapis asked in disbelief as she staggered forward, her eyes wide in disbelief.

"It can't be." Sapphire said with a voice filled with pure shock as she pulled her hair aside and Steven knew she was trying to see any future where she for saw this?

"My diamond?" Holly asked as she held her hands in front of her mouth, her eyes beginning to water.

"Blue?" His dad asked with tears in his eyes

"Steven?" Pearl whispered.

Steven said nothing as he stared up at the creature, he had done this. He had finally done it! He had learned how to use his Diamond powers! A determined look came on to his face and he quickly pointed his finger at the monster and said in a cool voice. "Poof."

The worm monster did not poof, in fact at that point the light resided into his gem and in a matter of seconds the monster came out of the trance. Steven stared up at it for a moment before the familiar feeling of a thin arm wrapping around his middle and pulling him away from the monster brought him out of his own trance.

"Lapis! Now!" Holly screamed and Lapis nodded as she raised her hands and as her hands raised to the sky and her gem glowed a large bubble of water lifted out of the ocean and hovered over the still slightly confused Worm Hydra for a moment before Lapis let it drop and the monster became socked.

Not wasting a single second Holly rushed forward and lashed out with her electric whip at the puddle that formed at the bottom on the monster's body. It let out a shriek of pain and electricity danced and crackled over it's entire body but it still did not poof.

Lapis was there again however and she used her power to raise what looked like a spiral staircase up into the sky, Sapphire strode forward and used her power to freeze it completely solid. Pearl gave him one last hug before turned and ran for the new ice sculpture in the middle of the beach, running all the way to the top and leaping off it and with a great swing of her glaive the monster disappeared with a great poof.

Pearl landed on the beach with the round green gemstone safe in her hands, a light blue bubble surrounded it before she pressed down on to top of it, making it disappear with a pop. Steven knew that he should be glad that the monster was gone and no one was seriously hurt and he was.

But now it seemed like he had lost everything, he had found out that he did have powers and now he didn't know how to use them and he couldn't command a gem monster to poof if it was attacking them. He let out a heavy sigh and fell on to his behind, tracing his fingers through the sand as he did so.

"What's wrong bud?" His dad asked as Steven heard him approaching.

"It's just...I worked so hard and nothing, then when I finally manage to get something working I mess it all up. As soon as I told the monster too poof nothing worked anymore and it broke out of it's trance." Steven heaved out a heavy sigh. "I just messed it all up."

"Steven." Sapphire spoke calmly and Steven turned to look at her, she hadn't pulled her hair back so Steven could look into her one round eye. "We don't know what you are, there has never been anything like you before and it is doubtful that there ever will be again. We don't know how all of this works yet, but you did not screw up."

"You saved my life Steven." Pearl spoke as she knelt in front of him and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

"And that is not nothing." Lapis spoke out with a wide grin.

"I always knew that you could do it my prince, it was just a matter of time." Holly Blue said with her eyes shut and a self assured smirk, as though she had always know that this would happen.

A large hand came down on to his hair and Steven looked up to see his dad smiling down at him. "I am proud of you bud."

Steven felt his eyes burning and he realised that he was probably going to cry when he suddenly remembered, he let out a cry and told them all to stay where they were as he ran for the house and came back out with his drawing. He panted for air as he arrived back outside and stood in front of Pearl. "Do you like it?" He asked as he handed her the drawing.

Pearl stared down at it for a few moments saying nothing but then she surged forward and sized him in a bone crushing hug, Lapis and his dad then joined in with Sapphire following after them with Holly Blue following in at the end though not without grumbling that this was unbecoming behaviour.

Steven sighed as he decided to stay in the centre of the cuddle pile for awhile, this was the life.


	3. Chapter 3

A heavy rain had chosen that day to fall down on to Beach City and Steven Universe watched as the fat rain droplets were slowly rolling down the window of his bedroom, with a heavy sigh he fell backwards on to his bed. He was completely board and there was nothing for him to do, during one of the attacks last week one of Lapis's water attacks had gone wild and it had shorted out his TV, meaning he couldn't watch anything nor could he play any of his games.

And he had just gotten a nearly mint copy of Lucile's Estate as well. He turned over on to his stomach so he could look down into the living room, Pearl was the only one in the room at the moment, sitting at the kitchen island with a screwdriver in her hand as she tried to fix her TV for him. It didn't look like it was going so good at the moment as while Pearl's face was usually expressionless there was something that really did look like a frustrated frown on it at the moment.

Lapis had gone flying off somewhere as soon as the storm had hit, Lapis loved to fly in the rain, and Sapphire and Holly Blue were both still inside of the temple doing whatever it was that they did. Sometimes Steven wished he could get in there but no matter what he tried he couldn't get the door to open. Dad wasn't here either, he had gone into town to meet a friend and he had called an hour ago to say that he wasn't going to come back until the rain had stopped as the storm had come out of nowhere and he hadn't taken a coat.

Steven kicked his feet back and forth as he tried to think of what he could do to kill some time, there were a bunch of board games under the cupboard under the stairs but almost all of them needed at least three players. He had some books as well but he had real all of them at least twenty-seven times, at a minimum. He could do some more diamond power training but he didn't know what he could do to train, he couldn't trigger that paralysing power that he had used on the Hydra Worm and he hadn't been able to use any of the other powers that his mother had meant to have.

Steven wondered if his mother had a weapon, Holly and Pearl both had one but Lapis and Sapphire had powers instead. It didn't seem like she had, no one ever mentioned her having one to him and from what Lapis and Holly had told him his mother had always been more likely to let other gems fight for her. She was a Diamond, a leader. She didn't have to fight and she wouldn't unless she had too.

He was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of the temple door opening, Steven jumped out of his bed and ran to the stairs to see if he could get a better look. Both Holly and Sapphire had come out of the temple and Steven smiled so widely that his cheeks began to hurt. This was awesome, there were four of them now! They could play Kitchen Calamity!

Steven leaped off of the stairs and began to dig through the cupboard to find the game, the cupboard was really dusty which really surprised him as Pearl was normally really obsessed with keeping this place clean. As he searched he heard the two gems approaching and both of them we're speaking to one another. "You're certain then?" Holly asked.

"Yes. The signal is weak but it is there." Sapphire spoke but Steven noticed that she seemed to be uncertain about something. "I can't say for uncertain what exactly the signal is coming from but my future vision tells me that the lab is the best bet, we were always going to go back there at some point anyway this is just giving us an actual reason."

"But of course we don't know who the signal is coming from, it could be coming from a-" Holly didn't get to finish as Sapphire interrupted her, Steven could just see her holding up her hand as she spoke.

"I know, I know. But regardless of that the signal is gem in origin and it wasn't there a few days ago. If there is a chance then it is one of us then it's a chance worth taking."

"I imagine your right, very well Sapphire. I will go to the lab and scout it out. I will be back as soon as possible." Steven listened as the clacking of Holly's heeled boots as she approached the Warp Pad.

"Yes, take Steven and Pearl with you." Sapphire's calm voice cut through the quiet room like a glass vase smashing against the floor and the sound of heels clacking against the floor stopped. Steven rapidly turned and around as saw Holly Blue frozen as she was about to step foot on the Warp Pad, her leg held in mid air. Pearl had her head turned to Sapphire, the screwdriver pointing at her direction. Sapphire was standing there like a statue, her hands clasped in front of her dress.

What Sapphire had actually said sunk in to Steven and he ran over to Holly, glancing rapidly between her and Sapphire. Unsure of which one to actually speak too. "I can come!? I can come on a mission!? You mean it!?" This was so cool, what better way to kill his boredom than to go on a mission and kick some monster butt and he would be able to get a lot of practice in with his new powers.

"Sapphire-" Holly Blue and Pearl said at the same time and Holly glared at her and Pearl looked down at the floor before Holly continued to speak. "I am more than capable of handling this on my own, I won't need anything carried on the way back and I can handle any threat so I won't need Pearl. I will not allow our prince to put himself into danger. If you think that I truly need back up then I can just get Lazuli to come with me."

"Lapis isn't here! She went off flying as soon as the storm hit!" Steven cried out happily as he hoped from one foot to the other, bring his hands up to his mouth so he could bite down on his hands so he wouldn't let out a scream of excitement, a practiced response as the last time he had done he had been watching the announcement of the next Inspector Spacetime and when he found it out it was going to be a girl he had screamed for how happy he was.

Sadly, Pearl had thought that he was under attack and that was how Television number 24 had meet it's tragic end, it had served him well and faithfully and it had been laid to rest with full honours. It had been beyond any of their abilities to fix it.

Holly didn't seem as excited as he did about all of this, Pearl didn't either as she was keeping her head bowed and twisting the screwdriver around in her fingers. Didn't they understand how cool that this was going to be?! The three of them could finally go on an adventure together. Sure, it would be better if they could all go on an adventure together but he would be perfectly happy going on adventure with just Holly and Pearl.

Holly still didn't look convince as she looked rapidly between him, Sapphire and Pearl. She closed her eyes and brought up her hand to her mouth to clear her throat. "My prince, forgive me but, while you did well in stopping that gem monster from crushing Pearl into dust, you have not yet gained full control of your powers and until you do, I do not feel comfortable with taking you into danger."

"Holly Blue." Sapphire interrupted and stepped forward, at least Steven assumed that she had stepped, the dress she wore completely covered her legs and she always looked like she was gliding more than she was actually moving, and if Sapphire had legs then he had never seen them before. "I've used my Future Vision, the best outcome is dependent on Steven and Pearl both going with you, please do not argue with me because you are not going to change my mind on this."

Holly looked even more annoyed than she had before but Steven didn't take the time to consider that before he turned and ran to the cupboard under the stairs, he threw it open and began to dig into it. He knew that it was in here somewhere, pushing aside boxes of board games and half broken cases of CDs and photo albums until he finally found what it was that he needed, he sized hold of it and pulled it out and held it up so all could see it.

"TA DA!" Steven called out as the gems examined his treasure. "This will be really helpful on the mission, it could really save us in a sticky situation!"

"My prince. It's a cheeseburger." Holly said as she stared at Steven's prize with an experession that looked like Steven had pulled out something stupid, like a chocolate cake. Pearl and Sapphire were both looking at it with blank expressions and Steven found himself frowning, didn't they understand how awesome this was?

"It's not just a cheeseburger, it's a cheeseburger backpack!" Steven shouted as he held it up even higher than he had done before as he leapt on to the table. The light of the room made the plastic cheese slices glow like they were made of gold, plastic gold.

"Steven. Off the table." Sapphire spoke out and Steven sighed but did as she said, no one ever argued with Sapphire.

"Okay, but seriously. Each individual slice is a pocket! I can carry a ton of stuff in here and I'm sure we can take some stuff that will be helpful on our super secret mission!" Steven said as he imagined himself, Pearl and Holly Blue dressed in slick black cat suits and woolly black hats standing outside the headquarters of an evil corporation like the Parasol Conglomerate from the House of Residing Evil series.

They would all fire their grappling hooks that would latch on the edge of the roof and they would scale the side of the building, except once they were halfway up the side of the building, a spotlight would shine on them and an attack helicopter would rise up and alarms would start to blare and they would have no choice but to break through the window and fight their way to the lobby where they would find themselves surrounded by an army dressed in black bodysuits and they would have no choice but to fight their way out.

But once they got outside the president of the Parasol Conglomerate would be waiting for them outside and he would release his pet Cyborg Zombie T-Rex with Titanium Armour and Plasma Gatling Guns on them. It would be a tough fight, gruelling and it would only get worse as each time they thought that they had finally gotten rid of it would get back up with new abilities and weapons like fire breath and laser eyes and rockets launchers and laying eggs which made little mini versions of itself.

But eventually it would go down and it would stay down and they would catch up to the president of the Conglomerate just as he was about to escape on his secret jetski and live the rest of hid days on some tropical beach. Once they throw him behind bars, there would be a huge award ceremony and they would all get medals and trophies and flower crowns and they would all be screaming their names. "Holly Blue! Pearl! Steven!"

"Steven."

"Steven! Steven!"

"Steven."

"Steven! Steven! Steven!"

"Steven."

"Steven! Steven! Steven-"

"Steven. Snap out of it." Sapphire's calm voice brought him out of his fantasy and he let out a nervous little laugh when he saw Sapphire looking right at him with Holly Blue and Pearl also looking concerned. "I know that you're excited, this is a very important thing for you. But you need to understand that the mission has to come first, the best possible outcome depends on your presence but that doesn't mean that it will come to pass just because you are there. Can you promise me that will you take this seriously?"

Steven was a little taken aback by Sapphire's tone, he didn't think that he had ever heard her ever sounding this serious. At least she had never spoken to him like this before. This mission had to be important and so, he nodded once and put on his serious face. "Don't worry Sapphire, we'll get her done."

Sapphire nodded in returned and glanced back at Pearl and Holly Blue, Pearl nodded silently but Holly let out a sigh. "Very well, if you are certain about this. But I want it down on record that I think this is a very bad idea! My prince, if you are coming then you must do everything I say. Do you understand?" Steven nodded rapidly and followed Holly and Pearl on to the warp pad, after he had quickly taken some essentials with him in his cheeseburger backpack.

Steven was vibrating, he had never warped anywhere before. Maybe he could convince Holly to let him take them back home when the mission was done with. Just as they were about to go however Sapphire spoke up. "Steven. Remember, whatever else you do. Keep the harmony...and remember we love you very much."

Before Steven could even begin to consider what that mean, there was a low hum and a flash of light and they were off on their daring mission!


	4. Chapter 4

The light from the warp was still stinging at his eyes as it faded away and Steven rubbed at them to try and make them stop, a pair of hands took hold of his and gently pulled them away from his eyes. She was blurrier than normal but he recognised Pearl easily enough. "Try not to rub at them Steven, the stinging will go away soon enough."

"Thanks Pearl." Steven said with a sniff as he turned to look at where they had ended up, a gasp escaping from his mouth before he threw his hands over his mouth to stifle an excited scream at what he saw. There were so high, near the very top of a large mountain with a whole range of mountains spread out before them, when Steven looked down he couldn't see the ground, all he could see was clouds and mist.

They had to be at the top of the world, Steven couldn't see anywhere else in the world being as tall as here. He caught sight of a tiny trickle of a stream which poured down from a ridge higher up near the tip of mountain, he quickly broke away from Pearl and ran over to it, puts his hands in the stream, shivering slightly when he felt the cool water against his skin before he brought his cupped hands up to his mouth so he could drink.

The water was so cold that it made his teeth ache and the back of his throat tingle, a laugh bursting out of him. He ran over to stare down into the valley below, cupping his hands around his mouth and shouted. "Hello!" A thousand echoes rushed back up to meet him and Steven liked to think that there were a thousand Stevens in the valley below, calling up to him.

Then he felt the ground shift underneath his feet and he let out a scream as he began to plummet down, the ground suddenly looking closer than it had been and he did not like it. There were no little villages of Stevens, only long stretches of brown land and rolling hills and great crystal blue lakes that glittered in the light of the pale sun.

It was pretty, in a way but Steven was too busy screaming for his like to really take any of it in. A pair of thin arms wrapped around his waist and he glanced up to see Pearl's face, she held him tight to her chest and extended her arm upward. A thin blue line lashed out and wrapped around her wrist and just like that, Steven felt themselves being flung around and then thrown higher up into the air.

The sky was so blue up here, it was so pretty. For a moment Steven thought about how great it would be if they could stay up here forever, floating above the mountains. They began to float downward and soon enough Steven was vaguely aware that they had fallen back on to solid ground but everything seemed so far away and dream like that he still felt as though he was floating.

A collection of blurry, blue shapes stood in front of his face, it made a bunch of noises which were growing louder and louder but try as he might he couldn't bring the shapes into focus. A blurry shape that was a lighter blue hovered in front of his mouth and something cool trickled down the back of his throat and Steven realised that he was drinking some of the cool water from the stream that he had found earlier.

"Just calm down Steven, drink the rest of this and then take a breath, you're going to be alright. Holly Blue, he's going to be fine, calm down. You're going to give yourself a stress fracture." It was Pearl's voice and after a few moments of sipping at the water from her palm and breathing, the rest of the world came back into focus and everything suddenly seemed a little less scary.

"What happened?" Everything seemed so hard to think about now, he remembered the endless blue and falling but how he had ended up there had completely slipped from his mind. "I was falling, was I falling?"

"Yes, you fell off of a mountain! Oh my prince!" Holly Blue cried as she knelt in front of him and fluttered her hands all over him, like she always did when he had nearly hurt himself. Most times though, it was because he had cut himself on a broken plate or because he had tripped and fell face first on to the boardwalk when he had been running to go and get some fried pieces of heaven from the Big Doughnut.

Steven was ripped from Pearl's arms and he found himself in a hold that could crush stone, he should know he had seen her do it. A downpour of tears struck his forehead as Holly Blue held him even tighter, if that was even possible. "I thought that I had lost you! I thought that-I don't know what Sapphire was thinking and I don't care, I am taking you back to the Temple, isn't safe for you here. You aren't ready!"

"But Holly!" Steven cried out as he tried to wiggle out of her hold but he was as trapped as a worm on a hook, or a turtle on it's back or a fly on a bit of that sticky role tape or some ketchup in a squezy bottle or some peanut butter in a jar. He was that kinda trapped and it really sucked. "Sapphire said that you were going to need me! That the best possible future meant that I had to come!"

"I know she did and I don't care, you are going to go back to the temple and you are going to stay there while Pearl and I go and deal with this." Holly had shuck her head then and carried him over to the Warp Pad despite all of Steven's protests and struggles. Just as Holly was about to put him down on the pad however, Pearl spoke up.

"Holly, you can't take him back. Sapphire said that we were going to need him if we wanted this to go as perfectly as possible. Steven will be more careful from now on and I will keep a close eye on him." Steven didn't think he had ever heard Pearl talk so much, more often than not you would just get a yes or no out of her and when you didn't get that, you only got a hum. "I don't want to be the one to tell Sapphire that we are disobeying her, do you?"

Holly Blue suddenly stilled and Steven was held in mid air in her arms, he frowned when he noticed the look of uncertainty on Holly's face. If he didn't know any better, than he would say that she almost looked scared but that didn't make any sense. What was scary about Sapphire? Nothing was scary about her, that was what. Sure, she sometimes got lost when she was predicting the future and she talked so little that she made Pearl seem like a real chatter box. But that was just Sapphire being Sapphire.

Sapphire played with him whenever she had the time, she was a surprisingly viciously player at Battle Buddies Turbo and she played to win when it came to Kitchen Calamity. There was nothing scary about Sapphire. Steven couldn't ever imagine being afraid of her.

But Holly quickly spun on her feet all the same and carried him away from the Warp Pad and set him down beside Pearl and then kneeled so she was looking into his eyes. "Alright, my Prince. You can stay with us but you need to listen to me. You stay close to us no matter what happens, you do what I say when I say it, and that means if I tell you to run then you run, if I tell you to hide then you hide. Do you understand me?"

Steven put on his serious face and nodded, snapping off a quick salute and Holly sighed before standing up. "Pearl, how far away are we?" As soon as she had answered the question, the gem on Pearl's chest began to glow and a screen was projected from it. Hundreds and hundreds of numbers and words scrolled across the projection too fast for Steven to make any of them out but they soon all vanished to be replaced with what looked like a picture of the mountains.

The circular projection suddenly turned on it's side and the picture turned into a 3D map of the mountain range and suddenly a red light began to flash. "We're not that far, I'd say a five minute walk. The beacon is still transmitting." Pearl spoke quietly while Holly examined the map more closely, after a few moments she nodded and clapped her hands and the projection ended there and then.

"Excellent, then let's not stand here waiting!" Holly turned around and began to walk across the snow covered ground, with Steven following after her and Pearl bringing up the rear. The sun was shinning high above them with no clouds to cover it but even so it did little to warm him against the chilly air of the mountains and he had to rub his arms to try and fight off the chill.

They had to have been walking for at least twenty minutes when Pearl asked them to stop near a large mound of snow, and fallen stones and uprooted trees. It looked like there had been a miniature avalanche. Pearl projected the map again for a few moments and contemplated the blinking red light before shutting off. "It's here, we're right on top of it. Must have been buried when it crashed."

"When what crashed?" Steven answered but he didn't get an answer as Pearl and Holly Blue began to pick up the largest of stones and began to toss them over the side of the mountain, once all the stones were cleared away they stared to pick up the trees as well. It was as easy for them to pick all those up as it had been easy for them to pick him up.

Once all the trees and the stones had been tossed over the side, and Steven really did hope that there was no one down there or they would've been made into pancakes, only the snow was left. Holly and Pearl began to dig and Steven went over to join them, this at the very least he could do. They dug and dug and Steven wished that he had brought some mittens with him.

There was so much of the snow that they would probably be digging for hours when suddenly an idea popped into Steven's head and he quickly shrugged off his backpack and began to dig into it and pulled out a fold out trowel. It wasn't really going to increase the speed of the digging but it would mean that his hands weren't going to be cold while he dug.

He had just tossed a few shovelfuls of snow over his shoulder when the trowel blade hit something metal, the vibrations causing his teeth and bones to shake and he fell backwards and dropped the trowel. Pearl and Holly had stopped their own digging and quickly began to dig where he had been, but not before Holly had picked him up and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

Eventually enough of the snow had been removed that Steven could finally see what they had been digging for, it kinda looked like one of those clear glass capsules that his G.U.Y.S came in only this one was huge, at least as big as a car and made completely of red metal with only a little upside down triangle of glass being the only thing that wasn't metal but Steven couldn't see through it.

Holly Blue hummed and pressed her hand to the metal and then yellow and blue lines of light began to run all over the surface of the thing, sometimes crossing over with one another and overtimes turning away and running in different directions. After a few moments of waiting, the lines of light disappeared and there was a gust of released air as a circle shaped hatch popped open and a ramp extended from it.

If it had been right side up then they probably would have had to walk up the ramp but it was on it's side and thus they had to get on their hands and knees to crawl inside, Steven noticed they neither Pearl or Holly Blue made any efforts to try and get it back right side up even though together they would both probably be strong enough to do so.

It was warmer inside the capsule then it was out in the mountains but it was also pitch black and Steven bumped his head into Holly Blue once he had crawled inside. Light began to shine from both of their gems, almost like flashlights. Steven wished that he could do that but again, ever since the Hydra Worm he hadn't been able to get any of his powers working no matter how hard he had tried.

Luckily, his Dad had always taught him to be prepared and he got an actual flashlight out of his cheeseburger backpack and he added it's beam to theirs. Weirdly, while they couldn't make out most of it the inside of the capsule seemed to be bigger than the outside. Holly Blue and Pearl moved further into the capsule and Steven followed them.

Pearl sat down in a chair in front of a desk and her hands reached out towards what looked like controls. She flicked a few switches and pushed a few buttons and suddenly, so suddenly that Steven had to cover his eyes, the entire room was flooded with light. Holly Blue let out a please hum and Pearl keep working on the console.

"It looks like much of the central core was damaged during the crash but the internal dimensions are still stable, that's a good sign." Pearl reached out with a hand and brushed her fingers over the screen in front of her and Steven let out a gasp as he watched the glass ripple, like it was the surface of a pond. "A lot of the internal data has been lost, but I think I can find a damage report. Yes, here we go. The ship had been clipped by an ion blast from an Enemy vessel, it wasn't a direct hit but the damage was bad enough that if forced them down on to the surface."

"This is a Roving Eye, a scout ship mainly. They weren't used till the final days of the war, there's only one battle that it could have been damaged in and only one side it could have fought for." Holly Blue and Pearl shared a look then, a long one and Steven didn't know what it meant. But what he did know was that even if he asked, he probably wasn't going to get an answer. There was so much that they never said.

Holly broke their eye contact first and she turned her attention on to the computer thing in front of Pearl. "The beacon is still transmitting, that means that whoever crashed here, at least one of them must not have been shattered. Anything that suggested where they might actually have gone to?"

Pearl turned back to the monitor and her fingers reached out to slide into the monitor, her blue hair ruffling in the movement. "There is something, a log entry, a great deal of data was corrupted but I think I might be able to piece enough of it together. One moment." Pearl was silent then as she worked, after a moment she nodded. "I have it."

Suddenly all the monitors inside of the Roving Eye flickered on and a Gem appeared on every single screen, Steven had never seen one like her before. She was short and crimson with her hair red brown hair being sort of cube shaped. She had one eye, her gem was where the other eye show have been and there was a slight crack running down in it, she had a really grumpy looking frown on her face as well.

When she opened her mouth to speak, all that came out was a blast of static and Holly whipped her head around to look at Pearl who then nodded and reached out to the monitor and controls once again. The video started over again and while the Gem's voice was still clogged up with static, they could at least understand most of it now.

"Log Entry 17, date 220202021231352 since the formation of the Great Diamond Authority. Our ship has suffered heavy damage during the battle, captain had poofed but has since reformed." The voice was little more than a growl and Steven didn't think that it was the static that was making her sound like that. "Our engines are heavily damaged and we can not reengage them to re-join the battle."

"We will activate the distress beacon but we aren't just going to sit here and wait, once we were all accounted for and completely formed up we commenced a scan of the surrounding area and we discovered an energy signature that registered as Gem." The static started to come back then and Steven was only able to hear one word out of every ten. "We are going to investigate...facility...Diamonds...traitorous off coloured disgrace...If I could get my hands on her...Ruby signing off."

As soon as she had finished speaking, all of the screens turned to static and Pearl quickly switched them off. She spun around in the seat to look up at Holly Blue, her body was tensed up. "The facility, they went to the research facility and that's the last entry. If they never came back then that means..."

"We don't know what it means, that lab had some of the sturdiest defences on this entire planet. I highly doubt a bunch of low caste warrior gems like Rubies would be able to break through them." Holly sounded like she believed that but Steven thought that she looked kinda nervous, but he was probably just seeing things. Holly Blue was never wrong after all.

"What's the research facility?" He asked and both Holly and Pearl jumped, like they had forgotten he was there and it kinda made him mad. Sapphire had said that it was because of him that everything would turn out great, couldn't they at least try and remember that. "You guys never mentioned it before, I don't think you did at least."

Holly and Pearl shared a glance between them before Holly decided to speak. "Well, my Prince. It was a facility dedicated to research-"

Steven rolled his eyes. "Well I got that far."

"Don't be rude Steven." Pearl replied.

"Pearl don't be rude to your prince." Holly Blue replied, her voice as cutting as a knife and Pearl almost seemed to shrink backwards into her chair. The action made Steven frown and he was about to tell Holly to say sorry to Pearl when she carried on talking. "And you are right my Prince, obviously you would know what a research facility is but it was one of your Mother's, those of us that were loyal to her established several dozen of them all over the planet so that we could research...certain things that were of value to her at the time. This lab was very dear to the Great and Long Lamented Blue Diamond, may the stars burn out before our memories of her begin to fade, she often visited it to conduct some of her own personal research."

"Cool!" Steven's eyes went wide and suddenly he found that the mission was suddenly that much more important than it had been before. If this lab was important to Mom then that meant that they had to get to it, they had to check it out to make sure that everything was okay. Steven couldn't think of anything more important in that moment that making sure all of the stuff that his Mom had worked on was still all right. "What kinda stuff was she doing in there? Le Gasp, was she trying to figure out how to somehow combine puppies and kittens together with turtles to some how make the cutest critter alive while also having the shell of a turtle for defence."

"...No, my Prince. She wasn't working on that but it was something...close, to that. Kind of." Holly spoke in a way that made it clear that it was in no way, shape or form close to what Steven said. Kind of. "It was...it was just important to her, and thus my Prince it is important to us. We haven't been here in a very long time, not since your mother-"

Holly fell quiet, Pearl looked down at her hands and Steven held his arms, looking to the side. He had known what had happened to his Mom, that it was his basically his fault that she was...gone. None of them had ever said that to him, of course. But sometimes, just sometimes, he thought that he could see them just looking at him.

Holly Blue brought her hand up to her mouth and cleared her throat before she continued to speak. "At any rate, we haven't been back here in a very long time. We need to make sure that none of these clods of useless dirt managed to somehow breach one of your mother's precious sanctuaries." Holly then turned her attention on to Pearl. "Pearl, do you still have the route to the lab in your system?"

Pearl nodded and Holly smiled. "Excellent, then lead the way." Pearl nodded again and stood up from the chair and began to make her way towards the hatch, Holly stretched down her hand for Steven to talk and the two of them walked over to the hatch. Holly helping him out through hatch, lifting him up so Pearl could pull him out.

They left the ship where they found it, but Holly did say something thing about maybe coming back and salvaging it and Steven thought that would be so cool! He could just imagine himself with an admiral hat as he, Admiral Steven, set a course out for the stars with First Mate Dad, Second Mate Holly Blue, Navigator Sapphire, Ship Councillor Pearl and Tactical Officer Lapis Lazuli, seeking out new life forms both friendly and not so, becoming best friends with the friendly ones and making the unfriendly ones into friends.

He glanced up at the blue, blue sky and smiled. Yeah, one day. One day.

They followed the trail for awhile, it really narrowed in a couple of places, at one point so much that they had to almost hug the side of the mountain in order to stop themselves from falling off of it. He had to wonder how Mom had been able to mange the trail, Dad had always talked about how huge she was. The path eventually widened out again though and once it had, Steven didn't even realise that he had been holding his breath as they kept going onward.

As they kept walking on and on and on, the path kept widening out and out until eventually it was wide enough that thirty people could walk down it, side to side with their shoulders touching and there was room for even more if they squeezed tight to on another. The path began to head downwards and lead into a small valley, with the walls of the mountain on either side of them.

They walked for at least another hour and the one time that Steven complained that his feet were starting to hurt, Pearl picked him up and began to carry him on her shoulders. He rested his head against the top of hers and let out a hum as his eyes slid shut, the gentle rocking lulling him into drowsiness and he very nearly fell asleep on her shoulders and only the remembrance of how important this mission was kept him awake, though it was hard all the same.

But even though he tried to keep focused on everything in front of him, he was barely able to keep himself awake and everything was hard to focus on and he was slowly spaced out and the second time that he rested his head on top of Pearl's, his eyes did not open. The comfortable darkness welcomed him and he could hear someone singing to him, it wasn't a song that he knew but it comforted him and made him fall even deeper into the dark, he knew that he was safe.

He was gently brought back from the darkness when Pearl set him down and gently shook his shoulder, he smiled up at her and wrapped his arms around her waist in order to have a cuddle and let out a sigh. "That was a really nice song Pearl, why didn't you ever sing that one before?"

Pearl frowned when he looked up at her and then gently brought down her hand to rest on the top of his head, she gently mussed his curls as her frown turned into a slight smile. "I wasn't singing Steven, it was just a dream."

Steven frowned, that didn't make any sense. Yeah, he had fallen asleep but he was sure that he didn't dream. He had heard someone singing, he was sure of that and even if it had just been a dream, why would he dream about a song that he had never heard before? Still, right now they had more important things to do and the mystery dream and the mystery song could wait till later to be solved.

Steven raised his arms into the air and let out a groan as he stretched, a yawn slipping out as well before he turned around. Letting out a gasp as his eyes took in what he saw before him.

It was a pyramid, one of the largest ones he had ever seen and it was completely made out of some sort of black stone, but it was weird cause there didn't seem to be gaps like there would be in a pyramid made of stone blocks, it was completely smooth. The only part of the pyramid that wasn't made of stone was the very tip of it. That was made of clear glass that seemed to be shinning blue in the light of the sun. The most incredible thing though, was that there were four smaller pyramids, all the same size of a large chair floating around the tip of the big pyramid in a circle.

Holly Blue was standing in front of the pyramid, next to a large stone that was slightly taller than she was as studied the construct in front of them. Steven wanted to get a closer look and so he ran towards the pyramid but before he could go any futher than where Holly was standing she reached down and grabbed him the scruff of his neck and pulled him away. "I think not my prince, best to take it slow for a moment. Pearl, can you enter the access code?"

Pearl hummed and she stepped over to another stone which was kinda shaped like a banana, she knelt in front of it and held out her hand and once she had done so a holographic panel appeared in front of her, her long fingers danced elegantly over the panel for a few moments as she entered the code. Suddenly, the panel turned red and there was a shrill beeping and the floating pyramids stopped, not that they fell to earth but more that they simply stopped moving.

Holly frowned and brought her hand up to the back of her head and drew her whip from her gem as she stared up at the stationary pyramids and pushed Steven behind her. "Pearl, enter the right code if you would."

"I did! That was the right code, they must have gotten inside and changed it." Pearl called back from where she was kneeling next to the banana shaped stone and her hands ran over the panel. "I can get us in there, but I will have to hack through the system. The only problem is...the system is aware I entered the wrong code, it's on warning mode right now. If I entered it again, the defences will activate and engage us. The same problem occurs if I start the hack, the system will register the breach and the defences will engage us."

Holly was quiet for a moment as she studded the pyramids and then looked down at Steven before she nodded. "My prince, go and stand by Pearl. Keep her safe while she works." Steven nodded and ran over to kneel next to Pearl, watching intently as she worked. Pearl's hands stilled for a moment before she nodded and input some more commands and a shrill alarm began to sound and didn't stop.

Four hatches slid open simultaneously on each of the four pyramids and from each of those hatches extended a large silver barrels with glowing blue lights all around them that began to flicker on and off in such a rapid way that it made Steven's eyes hurt and his head ache. And then, a flash of light exploded out of one of them and Holly Blue flipped out of the way as the blast of light struck the ground, throwing up stones and dirt into the air.

As soon as Holly landed on the ground she struck out with her whip, electricity already crackling along it. As the whip struck the pyramid though, nothing happened. The floating pyramid didn't even shake and Holly pulled her whip back. Two of the other pyramids rushed past it, blasts of light cracking from their barrels as Holly dodged out of the way.

Steven covered his mouth and gasped as Holly just managed to dodge the last blast, the blast itself blew apart the rock that Holly had been standing in front of. He quickly reached out held on to Pearl. "Pearl, I really kinda think you should maybe hurry it up a little tiny bit." Steven winced as he watched Holly keep dodging the blasts, all four were attacking her now and she was barely keeping out of their way. "Pearl! Please, you've gotta hurry!"

"I am trying Steven, I never thought I would have to hack into this system. The security is very layered." Pearl didn't turn to look at him as she spoke, her fingers just kept running over the holographic screen as Holly Blue kept trying to fight them off. "The system is fighting me at every turn, it's alive and it's learning and I can barely keep up with it!"

Holly had summoned a second whip and leapt into the air with a savage cry, she landed on top of one of the pyramids and it tried to shake her off but Holly held on tight to the bottom of the pyramid as the other three turned their guns on to it. Simultaneously, all three canons fired and Holly Blue managed to jump off just as the blasts connected, blowing the lone pyramid apart.

As soon as Holly hit the ground she merged her two whips into one super long one and wrapped it around one of the big stones on the ground and with a yell she swung the stone up into the air and it hit one of the pyramids so hard that the stone seemed to bend inward, almost like it was made of metal. The pyramid sparked, jolted and then fell to the earth.

Holly turned her one whip back into and wrapped one around one of the pyramids and her other one around the other and with a cry, she swung them into one another which caused them to burst in an explosion of smoke and scrap and sparks. Holly lowered her whips and panted for a moment and Steven let out a cheer, Holly was so cool!

But then, the tip of the pyramid began to shine brighter and Steven realised that it wasn't the sun that was causing it to shine. It was shining all by itself. It grew so bright that Steven had to look away and when he could finally look back, he found himself wishing that he hadn't. There were more of the pyramids, eight more and all of them displayed their weapons.

Holly groaned and raised her weapons, readying herself for what was to come. "Pearl!" She called out as she launched herself at the floating attack drone things.

"I'm trying." Pearl called back as her fingers rapidly danced over the screen.

Holly ducked and dived in between the blasts, one just narrowly missing her. "Pearl!"

"I'm trying." Pearl hissed through gritted teeth, Steven didn't think he had ever seen any of them gems sweat before now but he was seeing it now and for the first time since the Hydra Worm had attacked, he felt really, really scared.

Holly was now hoping from the top of one of the pyramids to the other just in order to stay out of their range of fire, it looked like the trick she had pulled before wasn't working now and as soon as she landed on one it would try and flip itself over to throw her off and thus Holly had to jump to another as soon as landed on one to stop from falling to the ground. "Pearl! Hurry it up already!"

"I! Am! Trying!" Pearl screamed back as her fingers moved so fast that Steven couldn't even see them anymore, they just looked like blue blurs against the screen and Steven felt helpless as he just kept watching and Holly Blue just barely managed to keep slipping out of harm's way again and again and again but with each time, the room for mistakes slipped that little bit tighter.

Then Holly Blue made a mistake, she misjudged how big a jump it was or maybe the pyramid drone managed to move backwards slightly as she was about to land, but instead of landing on the middle of the upside down pyramid, she landed on the rim of it and Holly's eyes widened and she let out a cry as she fell backwards and down to the ground.

Steven cried out as she watched Holly collide with the ground and just lay there as the pyramid drones swopped over head like a flock of very weirdly shaped birds. They flew up high into the sky and two of them broke away and began to swoop down at Holly, their weapons already charging and Steven didn't even notice that he was running until he heard Pearl calling out for him to get back.

But he couldn't, he couldn't let them hurt Holly. Steven shrugged of his backpack and began to dig through the pockets, not even really sure what he was actually looking for. He knew that he had to find something or else Holly would die and so would he. His fingers ran over something, it felt like a string or a cord and he suddenly had an idea that probably wasn't going to work but at least he could say that he tried if nothing else.

Soon he was in front of Holly with his weapon in his hand, he could hear Holly struggling to get up behind him as well as hearing Pearl working even more desperately at the console, screaming at him to get back to where she was. The Pyramids were almost on to them and Steven threw his weapon, pulling the cord as it left his hands.

The inflatable raft expanded in mid air just as the Pyramids weapons were about to fire and it almost seemed to wrap around them suddenly there was an explosion, busting the raft and sending rubber and stone raining down to the ground like it was confetti. Steven let himself feel a moment of pride and allowed himself a grin, it didn't last though as suddenly all the other six Pyramids were swopping down on them with their weapons ready to blast them into pieces.

Holly grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him back and into her chest and Steven closed his eyes as he heard them get closer and closer and closer. But suddenly, the shrill alarm that had been going on through all of it stopped and after a few moments, and when he opened his eyes again, Steven Universe realised that he was not dead.

Holly Blue looked about as surprised as he did about the not being dead thing and it took her a couple of moments before he finally let him go. They both turned and saw that the Pyramids were floating in front of them, their guns had been withdrawn back into themselves and their hatches had slid shut once again. After another moment, there was a soft chime and all six pyramids flew up to fly around the tip of the big one.

Pearl came walking up to them then, the holographic panel was in front of her now, being projected from her gemstone and she was still hitting various commands on it. "I told you I was working on it. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, you could've hurried it up a little bit." Holly said before she caused both of her whips to disappear and brought her hand to the back of her head, running her fingers over her gem. "Not cracked, so at least there's that. But what were you thinking? Letting out prince get away from you like that? He's half human, he could have been hurt."

Pearl clasped her hands in front of her and let out a sigh, Steven frowned and was about to speak up but Pearl spoke before he could. "You're right Holly Blue, I'm sorry. I'll make sure that he won't put himself in harm's way again."

Holly closed her eyes and nodded. "Yes, very well then. You shut the defences down and that's the important thing. Now, can you get us inside? I think we have wasted more than enough time out here. I want to get in there and find out how much damage those foolish grunts have done and find if there might be anything of value."

Pearl nodded and looked down at the holographic panel once again, she let out a sigh after a few moments of examining it. "This might take me awhile, the door controls are on a different sever to the automated defences. I'll get started right now but it might take me awhile." Holly sighed and turned and walked over to the remains of all of the pyramids and began to pick through them and Steven went over to help her, giving Pearl space to work.

Most of the rubble was too damaged to be used but from the six broken pyramids that recovered six small gemstones, all different colours and different shapes and Holly quickly bubbled them and sent them back to the temple. Once they had done that, Holly took him over to a small cluster of rocks and made him recite all of the caste of warrior class gems, including the shock troop sub-caste that had been his homework.

Once he had reached Jaspers, Pearl called out to them from where she was working and there was a hiss of air and a large hatch on the large pyramid slide open, sending out a gust of cold air that made Steven rub his arms to try and keep the chill away. "I've done it." Pearl said with a smile, it wasn't a big smile but when Pearl smiled you noticed. "And the internal defences are on the same server as the external, they should be deactivated."

"Should?" Holly asked, and she did not sound happy at all.

"I'll keep an eye on them, just in case."

Holly nodded. "All right then, let's us go. My prince, stay behind me if you would. Pearl, bring up the rear." And just like that, they were soon descending into the dark with the only light coming from the gemstones of Holly and Pearl, the light of day slowly fading away as they descended deeper and deeper still into the depths.


End file.
